Laurent Friry was born and grew up in Mulhouse, France. After studying in Strasbourg, he moved to Paris where he now lives and works as a telecommunications engineer specializing in international projects.

His interest in old cars began after a visit to the Schlumpf brothers’ collection in 1977. Excited by the many different styles and techniques of the cars, he began to read books and magazines, researching the history of the automobile, particularly from its origin to the early 1950s with a special focus on the manufacturers of luxury cars. Another great interest is French coachbuilders and coachwork.

Laurent was the co-author of Le Gotha de L’Automobile Française, a history of the French luxury cars, which received the Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award in 2011 and Farman, de l’Aviation à l’Automobile, the story of the Farman brothers who made a fortune building airplanes during World War I before producing one of the most exclusive French cars. This last book also received the Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award in 2014.